Presented at SD2C 2008, hosted by CSDN, this talk focuses on the core idea of innovation in technology development

1. How to Innovate!
or
Learning to Walk Backwards
Jonathan Palley
SD2C 2008
http://www.idapted.com
StudioChinese | EQEnglish

2. Three Goals
The Mindset of an
Innovator.
Innovate small. It will grow big.
Learn to love the question: “Why?”

3. The mindset of an innovator:
A man (or woman)
walking backwards

4. A man walking backwards...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.

5. Let’s understand each of
these properties

6. Knows the goal you are
walking towards.

7. Sizes and Perspectives

8. Understand Direction at
all sizes
• Where is the platform/product going?
• Where is the project I’m working on going?
• Where is the area of the code I am working
on going?
• Where is this class going?
• Where is this function going?

9. Where should it be
going?

10. Things Technology
Innovation is NOT
• Building new features on an existing
concept.
• Copying with slight modification
• Make the Chinese/American/Girl/Rails/
Scalable version of X
• This is about business model, not
technology.

11. Make Meaning
(make the world a better place)
How can this be done more efficiently?
What is wrong or unfair with the world/
society/etc.?

12. Real Innovation =
Paradigm Shifts

13. Paradigm Shifts
Change the way people think about solving
a problem.
Change the way you think about solving a
problem.
(This is hard, but worth it)

14. Example
Find information by typing, not searching a directory.

15. Example

16. Example

17. Example
Test::Unit rspec

18. A Paradigm Shift Works
if it..
• Saves time or money (efficiency)
• Improves length/quality of life

19. If its a business, it must
make money
• Will many people benefit from this paradigm
shift?
• Are they willing to pay for it? How much?
• Tip: Advertising does NOT work. Not in
this economy
• (People that will benefit) x (Willingness to
pay) x 0.10 = potential size of business

20. (Side Note: Paradigm Shifts Take
Time)
Google 1995
iPod + iTune 2001
I.C. 1960
(Hard economic times are often good for paradigm shifts)

21. How to develop
paradigm shifts?

22. A man walking backwards is...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.

23. 2. Always look where
you’ve been

24. History
What You’ve Worked
On

25. quot;If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of
giants.quot; - Isaac Newton

26. Read History
• Facts do NOT matter
• Look for concepts, reasons, lessons
• Everything is done for a reason - WHY?

27. Understand WHY

28. Gain Perspective
Look outside your field
There is nothing fundamentally new, only
new ways to mix things

29. Example: The Longitude Problem
How to find a ships longitude at sea?
Royal Observatory: The answer is
in the stars
Harrison: Woodwork/Mechanic -
found the answer in how you build
the clock

30. Constantly Learn from
Your Work.
Objectively Look

31. Look = Analyze

32. The Why Game!
• Ask the question: “why?”
• Then ask the question again.
• And again
• And again
• And again

33. The “Why
Game”...warning flags
• “There is no other way”.
• “That’s the way it is always done”.
• “That’s the right way to do it”.
• “That’s how a famous person did it”

34. We have a direction and
we are looking at where
we have been.
Now what?

35. A man walking backwards is...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he
passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.

36. 3. The last thing you did
is right in front of you

37. Iterate
Embrace Details
Every line of code matters

38. Beauty in Details

39. Masterpieces are made
one small step at a time

40. Never spend more than
5% of time on big
picture.
Love Details

41. Programming is an Art

42. Modern Languages
• A little code does a lot
• More time thinking, less time typing
• More time iterating, less time making

43. Refactor
Refactoring forces an iterative process
Refactoring makes you think: “how can I do this better”

44. Refactoring Lets You
Find the
Catalyst
for the Big Idea

45. This Is Wrong

46. Small Steps
Why?
Step
Why? What learned?
Step
Why? What learned?
Step

47. Iterations!
Patience!
Focus!

48. Iterate In Your
Conversations
- Stops innovation
No - Useful to keep focus
- Builds on idea, but still stops.
- Useful for correcting something
Yes, but ... that immediately won’t work
- Builds on ideas!
- Allows “small” ideas turning
Yes, and ... into “big” ideas.

49. Take Ownership
(Be Proud Of What You Do)

50. A man walking backwards ...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.

51. Don’t walk straight
(It is impossible to do if you really are innovating)

52. Accept the Crooked
Path

53. You will never go
straight
Always assume what you are doing is a little bit wrong
Look for “corrections”.

54. FAIL
(and then learn from it)

55. Embrace Mistakes
• Perfection = Stagnation
• Mistakes lead to new ideas.
• Why was this mistake made?
• How do we prevent this mistake from
being made?

56. We don’t like to know
we are wrong
We rarely are right
Successful people are not “right”. They are good at
identifying when they are wrong and fixing it.

57. Data
Listen and Learn
Talk - Talk about mistakes in a constructive way.

58. Summary

59. Innovation Makes the
World a Better Place

60. Never think you can’t
innovate

61. Small things lead to big
things

62. Never stop asking:
“Why?

63. Rubygems
• “apt-get”/CPAN like system for Ruby
• Written by a few guys to solve a problem
with distributing shared models (few people
used ruby at that time).
• Got a bit bigger, so started rubyforge
• Enabled creation of Ruby on Rails
• Huge industry around Rails. New paradigm
for web development.
• Many applications started around Rails

64. Questions?